It shouldn't be much longer for a proposed $5.6 million Estes Park Transit Facility Parking Structure to become a reality.

The long anticipated parking structure - which has been discussed and kicked around since 2011 - is currently planned to be built on the south side of the Big Thompson River adjacent to the Estes Park Visitors Center with ingress and egress along U.S. Highway 36.

Construction is tentatively planned to begin in 2016, town officials say.

The parking structure will be funded by approximately $3.9 million in grants from the Federal Transit Administration, Federal Highway Administration, CDOT and Rocky Mountain National Park. In addition, the Town of Estes Park has budgeted a matching contribution of $1.7 million from its Community Reinvestment Fund.

The Estes Valley Planning Commission approved the structure's development plan in late August. And, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation -- which owns a chunk of the land that the parking facility will sit on -- released a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) a week ago for a 30-day public comment period.

After that, the Bureau will draft its final finding.

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"The next step would be to obtain final approval from the Federal Transit Administration, and then complete the final design for the structure," said Estes Park Public Information Officer Kate Rusch.

This is all good news and quite a departure from where the project stood at the beginning of the year.

In late 2014, Public Works Director Greg Muhonen put the project out to bid. All the bids came back significantly over budget.

Then in January, Muhonen told the Estes Park Town Board that the Federal Transit Administration - which was scheduled to provide the lion's share of funding ($3.2 million) - was unhappy with a one-year delay for an environmental assessment on U.S. Bureau of Reclamation land. The FTA also objected with plans to build the parking structure on the south side of the Big Thompson River rather than on the north side as is had originally been planned.

In late March, things began to look up for the project. Muhonen said the FTA had backed off its objections to building on the south side of the Big Thompson River. Muhonen then offered a new proposal to the town board -- that the parking structure be built in two phases.

The first phase, which is anticipated to begin in 2016, will have 102 parking spaces on a lower-than-street level and an additional 108 on a slightly-above-street level. The total parking spaces for the first phase will be 210.

If the project is built out according to plan in a second phase, two additional levels will be added with approximately 412 total parking spaces. The town board unanimously supported that suggestion.

Muhonen also told the board that the town was applying for $5.3 million TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant for the other two levels.

He said if the town is successful in getting that grant, then he would change the build order and do all four levels at one time. He said the town should know in the near future if the grant has been awarded.

Preliminary design plans were then reviewed by the public a couple months later on June 10. That was followed by the Estes Valley Planning Commission approving the development plan on Aug. 18.

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